Posted on 06/14/2016 5:32:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
I know that many of you are not only hurting today, you are also angry. And your anger is not just directed at the Muslim terrorist who slaughtered so many of your people. You are also angry at Christians like me, believing that we have helped to create the toxic, hateful atmosphere that led to the horrific massacre.
A gay activist in Charlotte, North Carolina with whom I’ve shared meals and interacted many times, expressed his anger towards what he called the “sanctimonious bulls—t” of conservative Christian leaders, saying, “You helped cause this massacre. Your anti-LGBTQ theology assisted in helping others, including the Orlando shooter, in seeing each of our precious LGBTQ lives as dispensable and worthy of death. . . . F--k your prayers and your chaplains. How 'bout you stop your anti-queer theology that supports our death and despair, huh?”
In your eyes, people like me are hateful bigots, not recognizing the validity of your marriages, not recognizing the depth of your relationships, not recognizing the beauty of your families.
And when we say that homosexual practice is sinful in God’s sight, you feel that we are branding you as inferior human beings, virtually damning you to hell for who you are and for who you perceive yourselves to be from the womb.
Some of you have called us CINO’s (Christians In Name Only), reminding us that Paul taught that love does no harm to its neighbor (see Romans 13:10) and claiming that we are doing you to irreparable harm and damage when we tell you that God has a better way, that it’s wrong for you to engage in same-sex relationships, and that, with God’s help, it can be possible to change from gay to straight.
Many of you hear those words as anything but loving, to put it mildly.
As one woman posted on my Facebook page yesterday, “I blame YOU and people like you for the tragedy in Orlando. As of now, 50 people are dead, 53 injured, including at least one police officer, due to homophobia. And you, and your ilk spreading your messages of hate daily directly contribute to senseless tragedies like this. . . . SHAME ON YOU!”
In reality, if people truly listened to my message (or that of my colleagues), it would never dawn on them for a split second to attack you or try to harm you, and as I’ve said many times publicly, if someone tried to do you harm and I was present, they would have to get by me.
My friends and co-workers feel this way as well: As Jesus laid down his life for us, we are called to lay down our lives for others.
You might say in response, “Brown, you just don’t get it. Your words hurt us deeply and your political stances do violence to us. You’re no better than a mass murderer.”
I say to you in response, “Then forget about me or other Christian leaders and in your moment of intense pain and anger, look to Jesus.”
Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
And Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it” (Mark 8:34-35).
It is Jesus, not religion, that you need.
Maybe you were raised in the church and have issues with “organized religion.”
Maybe you have been hurt by professing Christians or believe that we’re all hypocrites.
I can tell you that Jesus will never hurt you and that Jesus is not a hypocrite, and if you will call out to him from the depth of your pain and despair and ask him to save you and forgive you, he will, just as he forgave and saved me in 1971 when I was a heroin-shooting, LSD-using, 16-year-old, Jewish, hippie rock drummer. And he has never failed me since then.
You ask, “But are you telling me that I’m supposed to stop being gay? Is that your message?”
My message is that we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy and transformation, and you can pray what all of us prayed: “God, I confess to you that I’m a sinner in need of forgiveness, and I cry out to you to forgive me and give me a brand new life.”
Then put your entire life into his hands – your past, present, and future; your hopes, dreams, and pains; your sexuality and your desires – and say, “Jesus, I want you to be the Lord of my life, I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead, and wherever you lead, I will follow you.”
Call out to him today from the depths of your heart, and he will hear your cry.
Then begin to talk with him daily in prayer and read the Scriptures on a regular basis to discover God’s will for your life, and do your best to connect with other followers of Jesus who seek to live by his teachings.
It is true that he calls for the complete surrender of our lives to him, but when we take the plunge, holding nothing back, we discover the very meaning of life itself.
If I can be of any help to you on your journey, please let me know. As much as you may perceive me as an enemy, I am praying for God’s very best for your life.
EGO
EDGING
GOD
OUT
All part of that “errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them” thing Thomas Jefferson and Co. invented.
At least on this thread. ;-)
LGBTwhateverists love to hear “thou shall not kill”, because it can be twisted to appear to support their religiously permissive, progressive state-establishing, perversion of the Gospel along with the rest of the Word - but “go and sin no more”, not so much.
That is correct
After all, who were these people at the rally? Not all of them were LGBT, or even LGBT-allies in the sense of supinely tolerating three sin of sexual vice. There were without question some like me, who wanted to witness against the sin of murder.
And some were just there to express mourning, which is to be expected since 100 people have been gunned down, half of them dead and half badly injured. Some expressing mourning for the dead, and some, moral reproach for the killer(s).
In the light of what kind of event this was --- in the immediate aftermath of a mass murder --- it seems best to say something along the lines of: I'm for your life, and not for your destruction.
I would have liked to have conveyed that.
Even wayward, dung-sodden lambs have to know, first, that you're on their side. Tagline
What sort of event did God hold on the scorched Earth where Sodom and Gomorrah, were?
The proliferation of LGBTperversion, and its murderous association, is symptomatic of the punitive cycle described in Romans Chapter 1 - where Created Things (including things like state-estabished religious dogma) became objects of worship; and because of that, God gave the culture over to a reprobate mind.
The present state of nature-abominating [state-established] affairs doesn't get fixed with a group hug.
The only way it gets resolved favorably, historically, is by raising up generations of individuals who render better decisions from a world-view founded in the Truth; and that’s a big challenge today given the fact that significant portions of multiple generations have been castrated of the common-sense ability to even recognize what the self-evident manifestations of XX (Female) and XY (Male) are.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Sex+Evolution+and+Behavior+Daly+Wilson
This just in:
Galileo STILL insists the Earth isn't at the center of the universe - figuratively or literally.
I place my trust in the Good Shepherd, and it is to Him that I would direct these souls befouled by lust or any other defiling sin. If, on the other hand, you really want to rain down mass destruction on Sodomites, I suppose Omar Mateen’s approach comes closer to your ideal.
“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.”
They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
Genesis 19:9 NIV
There are NO 'innocent' people.
Not me; not you.
I'll bet you do!
Most any image manipulating program can get the job done.
I use PaintShopPro; most folks use Photoshop.
You've seen some of my stuff.
Nothing complex at all.
Perhaps the Mormons would let us use their Personages...
As He does to each of us.
1 Corinthians 6:11
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
That's what them fellas pounding on Lot's door wanted!!!
I didn’t mean to say that He was not AWARE of them; but, putting His GOD powers aside and living as a human; He did not ‘witness’ the event being brought before Him.
Oh?
It seems to me that your new tagline is quite succinct!
Has Westboro chimed in yet??
Well; I've yet to find the message of love in Genesis:
Innocent does not mean perfect. It means they were murdered for no reason.
At their annual convention held this year in St. Louis, the Southern Baptist Convention expressed concern for the Orlando victims and urged its members never again to display the Confederate flag.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.